


Shorts I Wrote On The Metro

by spookalien



Category: Original Work
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Gen, I list characters like you know who they are, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, probably has typos cuz i cant type for shit on phone, technically this is about friendship, they are at the beginning of the chapter if there is a need for them, this is original work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-10-03 00:14:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 8,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10231235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookalien/pseuds/spookalien
Summary: This is a collection of stories about two minor characters in my story, who are not in it quite enough but they should be.Also later about other characters. Really, this is just a collection of short stories featuring my characters.Montero gets herself injured to hang out and has a hard time learning how to be friends with people.Cara wants to laugh about it as much as she appreciates it.





	1. Falling for you, from two floors up, help me I broke my ribs

**Author's Note:**

> I have their first meeting written down elsewhere. This is not it. This is like their 20th meeting.  
> Monts just keeps getting herself fucked up. 40% because she not that good at fighting just yet and she needs to be more careful. 80% because she wants a reason to visit the nice doctor. 20% she is not being careful so she has a reason to visit the good doctor.

"What the cold shit have you been up to," Cara snapped.

When Montero fell into her workshop broken in more places than Cara thought was survivable, and bleeding from more holes than human bodies were ever supposed to have, and her nose broken again, it wasn't even worry that Cara had felt. She just felt done. And then worried, but mostly done.

Montero shrugged with one shoulder. It still made her wince.

"Amelia." Montero flinched at that, then cursed when that made her hurt.

"I was thrown out of a window" Cara cocked an eyebrow. "From the second floor" Cara pursed her lips and shook her head.

"For fuck's sake, girl," she muttered. "How are you even alive? You have clearly been pierced right through. Did this happen one street down? How did you even drag your sorry ass here?"

She continued muttering as she tended to Montero's wounds. The other didn't answer just clenched her jaw so much Cara was sure it was hurting her teeth.

When she was done, Cara put down the tools she had been using and cupped Montero's face in her hands. The woman jerked hard at that, her hands half-raised as if she meant to push Cara's hands away but stopped herself in the middle of the motion.

"Please try not to get injured so much," Cara said, looking into her eyes. "One day you will be ripped into so many pieces even I won't be able to stitch you back up"

Montero gulped.

"Okay," she whispered, completely stunned.

Cara watched her for a moment, then leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead. She let go of Montero then and gathered her tools. She put them on the cleaning tray and went about tidying up the place. Montero remained frozen on the couch.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yep all are short shit


	2. how many bones can you break before calling the doctor your friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "regular". so pretentious. she comes here more often than the pub.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ PROLOGUE ]
> 
> "Giordan kick me in the ribs"  
> "What?" He half-choked on his tea.  
> "I said kick me in the ribs did you not hear me," Montero said.  
> "No, I heard you just fine, but why?"  
> "Do it"  
> "This is about that doctor, isn't it?" He smirked.  
> "Just do it"

"I didn't know you cared," Montero said the next time she went to Cara, with only a broken rib she had gotten from practising with Giordan. Cara was pleasantly surprised to see her mostly unharmed.

"Of course I do," Cara said. "You are something of a regular here. People start caring for regulars in their lives," she said with a smile.

Montero watched her, trying to figure her out. She had been „something of a regular” for about a year and even if she tried to distance herself, she found the young doctor sympathetic. Her work was honest and despite her occasional grumps, she remained caring and soft.

"You know," Montero's eyes snapped to her. "You don't have to break a bone or two just so you can come here," Cara said as she examined her broken rib.

Montero didn't say anything and silence fell over them.

"You are welcome here any day, Amelia," Cara broke the silence when she was done checking for any more broken ribs.

"Stop that."

"What?"

"Calling me 'Amelia'"

"Why?"

"I don't like that you know it," Montero said flatly.

Cara smirked at her and left it at that.

 


	3. Montero is a loser and she knows it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cara probably enjoys how awkward this person, whom she has seen covered in blood head to toe, is being when she tries to be just nice. She finds it adorable.

Montero held out a pot of lavender. Cara stared at it with eyebrows raised.

"What is this for?" Cara asked.

Montero lowered her hands a little, a slight blush creeping to her face. This was a stupid idea. Did friendships even work like this?

She wanted to shrug but she was known to be honest and she wanted to keep that small reputation of hers alive.

"I didn't want to come empty-handed," she wasn't known for being loud or brave, though, so she said it in a low whisper.

Cara snorted. "You don't go to people for the company too often, do you?"

Montero frowned. Was it really that obvious?

"No," she admitted.

It wasn't that she didn't enjoy some people's company, she just didn't really make friends that came with no special benefit. When she dined with some gang leaders, or visited the local clinic's headmaster, she didn't do it for fun, she did it to keep the relationship alive and well and make sure it is beneficial for both of them but mostly for her and her people. If it so happened that the business partner was a pleasant person who genuinely wanted to help her, it was only a plus.

Cara, however, she never really asked for anything in return. Surely, Montero always dropped her a sack of coin, or that one time a crate of new equipment, but Cara never asked for it. She didn't ask for anything from most people she helped, in fact. Montero liked her. She didn't want to think of her as a friend because... well, because Cara was a woman of medicine, a doctor, a witch even, according to some folks. She helped because it was what she did.

But Monteto has come to enjoy her company, often staying for a bit longer than necessary to "rest".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw thanks if you are reading this


	4. The fucking candle holder can you believe it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can you fucking believe it??? the candle holder. im. i don't even know how to feel. the god damn candle holder.

"-and then he picks up the ancient candle holder, like that is going to protect him-" Montero continued.

She had discarded her coat and vest a while ago and now she was just lounging on the couch with a sword in one hand and a cloth in the other. Cara sat on a chair with the back between her legs, balancing a pot on top of it and smashing some dried leaves and whatnot into what was supposed to be a fine powder. It was neither of those just yet. She listened to Montero talk, barely moving as she cleaned her sword. She didn't tell Cara what she did for a living, the doctor had figured it out herself early on. It became evident when Montero accidentally mentioned a job from "last week" and Cara didn't bat an eye.

Montero figured she either knew or didn't care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no, this chapter is not supposed to make any sense. i think i was just on the metro at like 7am for some fucking reason??? i dont know


	5. hey look out it's the emotions bit from the future past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: there is some description of an injury.
> 
> Spoiler alert: people have emotions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is not set right after the previous chapters. this is set like a couple years ahead so this is sort of out of place, but i did write it so hey

Cara usually woke alone, to an empty apartment, and _usually_ her workshop was empty as well.

Not this time. She walked up to her workshop to check on the potion that has to simmer "overnight" on top of coal. The sweet smell of it filled the air, mixed with the smell of burning coal.

And on her sofa a familiar form lay curled up under a familiar, brown coat.

Cara frowned at Montero's sleeping form but let her be. She would make sure to question her later - as much as she tried to not get involved in people's lives and let them come to her when they needed... sometimes you gotta check on those stubborn patients who only accept the bare minimum.

The potion was done and she carefully poured it into a few bottles. It was for sleeplessness but less dangerous for children than the milk of poppy.

When she turned around, Montero was watching her as if analysing her every move. Cara smiled.

"Good morning."

Montero blinked at her slowly and dropped her head back down.

"How did you sleep?" Cara inquired and sat on the armrest near Montero's feet.

"Not enough," Montero mumbled as she rubbed her eyes. Her hair was a mess, Cara noted, hanging out of its usual twisted bun in many places.

"What's wrong?" 

Montero made a sound that Cara couldn't identify. She sighed through her nose and rubbed her eyes again before she finally sat up. They were red and the bags underneath seemed darker than ever - not that they were ever too faint.

"Three of my people were blown up," Montero stated blankly. Cara stared at her in disbelief.

"Wha- When?"

Montero slouched, her shoulders dropped low, and she was barely frowning. She looked tired.

"Six days ago. It was a trap."

"Why didn't you come sooner?" Cara blurted ut, moving from the armrest to sit next to Montero.

"One of them survived," Montero continued without a hint of emotion in her voice. She was looking at the air in front of her. "I didn't want to leave them alone. I didn't want to leave her alone."

She leaned in easily when Cara pulled her towards herself. Montero rested her head on Cara's shoulder and exhaled when arms wrapped around her.

"Lilian treated her. She is going to live. She lost her legs but she will live." Cara nodded.

It has been a long time, years, in fact since Montero last came to her with a medical problem, especially since her little group had gained a new member, a physician by the name of Lilian. Cara had met the man once. Half of his face had been burnt off by acid and he had several scars on his arms. Methodical, careful scars that Cara didn't ask about. However, she did ask about the one he had on his hand that looked like someone had stabbed his hand right through.

“Tried to steal me some bread,” he had said in a thick accent. “Shopkeep disagreed,” he grinned. He was missing a tooth. “Put a knife through me hand,” he tapped the scar. “I put the knife in his neck.” That said, he went back to embroidering enormous lavenders onto the front of a white shirt. Cara might have glimpsed that shirt under Montero's vest once, but she wasn't one to make assumptions.

Cara had decided she liked Lilian very much.

Cara didn't realise that Montero was crying until the tears reached her neck. She turned her head slightly to stare at the other in disbelief, but she was just there, staring at the far corner of the room over Cara's shoulder with tears flowing down her cheeks.

Cara knew that Montero cared a lot for the people she employed or took in, especially those who worked close to her. One time one of her boys, a ginger kid named Giordan got some nasty scars from falling through a tree and onto a hedge from the third floor. He survived with several scars and a piece of wood pierced through his side, not too deep under the skin, so it was nearly visible under it, a hard bump as if he had grown a new rib under the onea he had already. He threw up when he saw it, if the vomit on Montero's coat when she arrived with the boy was anything to go by. She didn't leave his side the whole time and Cara was once again astonished by how much the woman could love someone.

And now here she was in her arms, crying.

Cara patted her back and held her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the only reason i am breaking everything into different chapters is because i, personally, enjoy clicking the next chapter button and because it makes me feel productive in a way, i suppose
> 
> Edit: i reread this and idk what the fuck is up with the times, just deal with my bullshit until i actually correct that shit. what the crap.


	6. At least tell me when you get murdered or go on a roadtrip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where is Cara?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> timeline what timeline? there is no consistency, the only thing keeping these shorts together is the main characters
> 
> for the record this is more or less back into the "normal" timeline, so set before chapter 5.

Montero stared at the locked door in confusion.

The door was locked.

The door did not open when she knocked.

The window on the roof was locked as well.

It wasn't like she couldn't break in, the matter of getting inside wasn't what she was concerned with.

Why was the door locked?

Cara was usually home around this time of the day, and even if she wasn't, the roof window would be open.

 

The door was still locked a week later. Montero tried to ignore it.

 

Nobody knew anything about the disappearence of the doctor and that was possibly the most concerning bit. No one saw anything, no one heard anything.

Montero didn't want to consider that someone decided that this city didn't need a selfless healer helping people. It didn't even make sense, why would anyone want to kill a doctor like Cara?

Besides, she would have known. She surely would have known, it had been a month, there is no way someone could kill someone important in this city – important to Montero – and she wouldn't know about it.

But then where was Cara, and why didn't she tell Montero she would be gone.

 

Montero had more theories than she could count and none of them helped.


	7. I'm not angry but don't to that again I almost had eighteen heart attacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the Moody Spider, this is our 24th name because our boss doesn't appreciate bad jokes about her personality, be on the lookout for the next change coming in 3 days! We have no idea how to name a pub, but our drinks are good enough that it won't matter to you at all!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am full of lies. This is neither short nor was written on the metro

Giordan was leaning on the bar with a stupid grin on his face as he told Karlo about some girl with “eyes so brown, they weren't even brown but red like velvet”. Giordan liked to pretend he knew anything about poetry, even though Karlo wasn't sure he had ever even touched a poetry book in his life. Regardless, Karlo listened patiently as he wiped another glass dry. It had been a long day and he was, in a way, too tired to tell Giordan to take his crushes elsewhere.

The door opened with it's newfound screech – Karlo meant to oil it but the days always ended up too busy for that and by the end of them, he decided to just do it _tomorrow_.

“We're closed,” Karlo announced. It was only true for four hours, but the guest still managed to pick a time when _it was_.

“I know,” came the answer. “I am looking for Montero. I owe her an apology,” she said.

Giordan twisted around in his chair and Karlo looked up.

The guest wore a large, perfectly round hat, a black poncho, purple trousers and several necklaces. She had curly hair under that huge hat and black skin, with some unusual symbols painted on her face. She also sported an enormous bag on her back.

“Cara?” Giordan asked with a sudden grin.

The guest nodded and Giordan started laughing like it was the best joke he had heard in years.

“Go on upstairs,” Karlo pointed towards the stairs. “Large door in the middle,” he supplied when Cara didn't move.

“Thank you.”

When Cara disappeared on the stairs, Giordan took a break from his bubbling laughter only to ask “Should we go and make sure she doesn't get tossed from the window?”

Karlo just shook his head.

 

“Where the fuck have you been?”

To Cara's surprise, Montero didn't shout or seem angry at all. She didn't seem relieved either. In fact, Cara couldn't have pinpointed Montero's emotions. Her voice was calm, quiet, and collected. Her expression didn't tell anything. Not shock, not anger, not _anything_.

“My parents sent me a letter, said they wanted me home as soon as I could make it,” Cara answered truthfully and sat herself down in a chair. “Turns out, they wanted to apologise for how they acted with me in the past.”

“No emergencies?”

“They are old. I suppose neither of them want to die having regrets,” Cara shrugged. “At their age, that could as well be an emergency.”

Montero raised her eyebrows, waiting for the rest of the story.

“I am sorry I didn't tell you I would be gone,” Cara said instead, content with leaving it at that.

Montero wanted to ask what it was all about. She knew a couple things about who Cara was, but nothing about who she was before she met her. She looked at her now, looking for clues about her past, but evidently both of them hid the marks that could tell stories about who they were. Montero with the gloves and slightly too long sleeves. She knew what her own marks were and how to conceal them, but she had no idea where to even begin to look for those on Cara.

She blinked slowly and stopped looking for clues about Cara's past. She had grown to respect Cara, and her past was none of her business unless Cara wanted it to be.

Minutes passed in silence before Montero finally spoke.

“What's with the paint?”

Cara smiled fondly and relaxed into her chair.

“A smuggler brought me back. These mean that I am a protected passenger,” she gestured to the spots and lines on her cheeks, “and this means I am a healer,” she pointed to her forehead.

Montero had a guess about the smuggler who might use facial paintsand she let the topic go.

Cara suddenly hauled the bag into her lap and opened it. Montero watched as she pulled out a small pouch made of white cloth.

“I nearly forgot about this.” Cara smiled as she handed it over to Montero. “I saw it and it reminded me of you.”

Montero stared at Cara, then she stared at the pouch before slowly opening it and sliding what was inside of it into her palm.

It was a silver necklace with a small, thin rectangle medal, and Montero was confused for a moment before turning it around between her fingers. On the thin rectangle's other side was a piece of lavender in resin, and Montero had no idea what to say.

Cara waited for her to finally look up.

“Thank you."

Cara smiled. When she saw the necklace, she figured she would get it for Montero because of the endearing pot of lavender she was gifted the first time Montero came to her without being beaten up like a street dog. Then, as the weeks passed, Cara decided it would also be an apology gift because Montero was probably angry or worried or both with her sudden and unexplained disappearance.

Cara might not have shown it, but she wasn't used to having people around her, either.

 

When Cara left, Montero walked her down the stairs and then walked back into her office without saying a word to Giordan and Karlo at the bar.

She stood in front of her own desk and stared at the necklace on it.

This was probably as close as they were going to get to friendship bracelets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting non-edited shit is how I roll. Typos? Who cares? No-sense sentences? Fight me. I am not here to make sense I'm here to make pancakes.


	8. im dying squirtle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Montero is an old* woman and while she is ready for most unexpected things to be said at her face, even she can be surprised by the simplest things.
> 
>  
> 
> *old: at the ripe old age of, like, 35. I don't know how old she is here. I have not bothered to math that shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can i upload from mobile? let's see gothdamn. welcome to barbarian life, enjoy the typos

So it has come to this?

She knew it would come one day but... she had expected it to happen later. Maybe not quite like this.

Well.

Montero checked the paper in her hand again, making sure she got everything on the list, then entered the apartment. Cara was probably in her workshop, if her absence in the living room was any evidence.

Montero placed the bag on the table and set to making herself some coffee. It had been a long day and she still had to get back to her own home.

 

When she walked into the workshop, Cara was bent over her desk, mixing liquids together. She had her sleeves rolled up and her hair pulled back and out of her face, and she ignored Montero entirely.

"I brought you your groceries," Montero announced when Cara didn't pay her any attention. She sat down onto the couch and raised her mug to her lips.

"Thank you, I love you for it," Cara said casually.

Montero choked on her coffee. The only thing stopping the " _you what?_ " from slipping from the tip of her tongue was the very urgent need to cough up both of her lungs whole.

Cara kept pouring something into something else to make a third thing that would surely be good for something. Completely ignoring the person _choking_ on four drops of coffee behind her.

Montero stared at her between coughs, then she coughed some more.

Then she stared some, too, for good measure.

When Cara didn't say anything else even after minutes have passed, and even though Montero was very loudly coughing her lungs out, and - not to be overdramatic but- nearly dying, Montero said:

"No problem."

She drank the rest of her coffee in silence, hoping for no more choking hazards to occur.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shopping list  
> • strongest coffee you can find (lots)  
> • sugar (lots)  
> • 2 loafs of bread  
> • 6 big onions  
> • 4 apples  
> • ink  
> Buy these at Dyndron Alley, Pilvok's. Tell him I sent you! Do NOT look him in the eye!  
> • sage  
> • ginger  
> • leeches  
> • anesthetic  
> • lye  
> • needles   
> • gloves   
> Don't look him in the eye!


	9. hello this is squirtle reporting an accidental murder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The thoughts that go through one's head after the first time saying how you feel out loud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Cara’s ignorance really makes me wonder what has happened. She’s not like … specifically cold, but distant and something about the wording makes me feel like it is special. Like there is really something off and it’s not just her usual “I’ll give people their space.”"  
> \- SarahWolverine on chapter 8  
> you have no idea how astonishing the truth is, my friend
> 
> Don't expect a lot, I wrote this much like all the others: in like 15 minutes without giving it as much as a second thought.

Cara was leaning over her desk, caught up in thoughts as she watched the pale blue liquid slowly drop into the colourless one. Frankly, she wasn't sure what she was doing; it was a new recipe she had found in an old book; according to description, it would ease stomach cramps, but based on ingredients, she wasn't quite sure of that. She would have to test it, for sure, and that wasn't going to be easy to do on her own considering the fact that she didn't get the sort of cramps this was supposed to heal. She also didn't want to just give it to a random citizen looking to ease their cramps, so she would have to find a willing person who wouldn't mind downing a glass of untested serum. That didn't leave many people. Perhaps she could pay one of Graves', those people were up to anything if one caught them the right time of day. Or she could just-

"I brought you your groceries." Montero's voice interupted her thoughts and she barely managed not to flinch. She had meant to ask her to walk a little louder. 

Still, as she glanced over her shoulder slightly and caught a glimpse of Montero, she relaxed.

"Thank you, I love you for it," Cara said without thinking about it.

Her breath stopped just as Montero started coughing her lungs up. 

That was not what she had meant to say.

_That was not what she had meant to say._

Was that too much to say? She didn't mean to just announce that so casually, no matter how true that was. Who says "i love you" after recieving groceries? It just slipped out, and now there it was, out in the open, actually having been said, out loud. Said and  _heard_.

Cara reached for the vial of clover oil and continued her work as if her thoughts were still focused on the serum.

She loved Montero, that was a fact for sure. She had no intention of saying that out loud, ever, at any given point in life. She was her friend, best friend, even, and she figured it was obvious enough without being said. She never really thought about even saying it. It wasn't something she usually said and it wasn't something that she had wanted to say.  _It was obvious, for fuck's sake._

Montero continued coughing behind her back for a while but she didn't sound like she was in actual danger of choking to death, so Cara continued with the mixture instead.

The coughing stopped after a while but she could feel Montero's eyes on her back.

Cara reached for a thin spoon and stirred the mixture. She was perfectly fine ignoring what she just said. She didn't want to discuss is, she didn't want to explain herself. What was there to explain? Was she not allowed to love her friends? She could express an emotion if she wanted to - she didn't, but that wasn't the point. 

"No problem," Montero said eventually. Her voice was calm, even if a bit higher than usual.

Cara sighed and her shoulders sagged. Why was she even worried? It wasn't like Montero had ever asked her to explain herself.

If she didn't greet Cara questioning what Pilvok even  _was_ , she wouldn't question an "i love you" out of the blue.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> that relatable feeling when someone brings you bread and you confess your undying love to them


	10. the rumour come out: does karlo is care

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just boys being boys. Some good guy time. Dude-ing.  
> In other words; how to deal with human emotions when your best friend isn't around to beat you up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The metro decided that working properly is for losers and the usually 40 minute ride took about an hour and a half.  
> Editing is for losers too, enjoy my typos.
> 
> //  
> After some hard thinking I have concluded that this is set about a year before most of the other shorts, making Giordan a fresh and young age of 22, and Karlo around 28.  
> This also means Montero is 32-33 here, even though she does not seem to appear.

"Good morning"

"It is 4am," Karlo said and dropped the damp cloth on the counter.

"Have you seen Emma?"

"No."

Giordan frowned and looked in front of himself as if thinking about the meaning of life or the right density for chocolate pudding.

Karlo went back to arranging some glasses and wiping the bar clean again for good measure.

"Okay, what's bugging you," Karlo said with a defeated sigh.

Giordan sat down by one of the tables and Karlo wasn't sure if the table's surface or Giordan's face was blanker.

He mumbled something, and Karlo already regretted asking.

He dropped down on the chair opposite Giordan and put his left hand on the table with a bit more force than entirely necessary.

"Speak up, Giordan, I'm not made of ears."

"Sana said-" he started, but halted his words. Giordan pressed his lips into a thin line and he leaned back in his chair, frowning as he raised his eyes to meet Karlo's tired look. "We both know you couldn't care less, so why ask at all?"

Karlo cocked one eyebrow at the accusation.

"Don't go looking all confused there," Giordan said, gesturing at Karlo. "It's not like I can't see the way you roll your eyes or huff when I talk about things like this."

Karlo remained silent, as he often did. It wasn't that he had nothing to say - it was that Giordan was right. He couldn't care less about the girl that Giordan was loving or screwing, no matter if she looked absolutely mesmerizing when the setting sun kissed her face or if she had just taken Giordan's heart and chopped it up to give it to stray dogs. 

He did, however, care about Giordan, and the best way to make Giordan talk was to shut up and wait until he spat out what was bugging him.

Giordan glared at him but there was a sad glint in his eyes that was usually... not there.

"Sana said I am too much and I'm guessing that's a right sentence in your mind, too." He averted his gaze and looked at the wallpaper. "Talking too much about stupid shit that no one cares about," he added, quieter.

Then he pushed his chair back, stood up, and left without another word.

Karlo stared after him as he walked up the stairs.

_What the bloated fuck?_

Giordan did not usually walk away like that; once he opened his mouth he would finish the complaint no matter what it was and how long it would be. Then he would wait for someone to tell him that he cares about all this way too much-

Oh.

"Fuckin'," Karlo groaned and stood up to follow Giordan. "Idiot."

He found Giordan in one of the empty rooms - that he was absolutely not supposed to be in, those were for the few people who actually stayed a night or two at the inn, - just lying on the bed, face down.

"That's why the pillows are wet, then," Karlo commented as he shut the door behind himself.

"I know, I cry too much."

Karlo sighed and pulled out the chair from the desk to sit on it.

"That's not what I m-"

"Why are you bothering?" Giordan interupted and flopped onto his back gracelessly.

Karlo just waited and silence fell over them until Giordan spoke again.

"I'm trying to have a conversation, unless you think that would be too emotional of me."

"We're yet to find a thing too emotional for you."

Giordan snorted but he still seemed off. He remained silent and rested his hands on his stomach. He slid one of his legs off the bed, swinging it a little. 

"What's wrong?" Karlo asked eventually.

Giordan didn't answer immediately, which was both rare and worrying.

"Do you think I complain too much?"

Karlo hummed in agreement.

"Talk too much?"

Karlo hummed again. He figured if Giordan was willing to actually open up more than usual - and to him of all people, - then Giordan should expect nothing less than honesty.

"Laugh too loud? Gesture too widely? Take too long steps? Shave too often? Have too many freckles? Have too bright hair?"

Giordan stomped on the floor with the leg he had off the bed, then he pulled it up. He turned onto his stomach and slammed him face into the pillow.

Karlo watched silently, then sighed and moved over to the edge of the bed.

"Why the concern all of a sudden?"

"It's not sudden," Giordan lifted his head to answer then dropped it back onto the pillow.

"No?"

Giordan didn't move this time, and Karlo thought he was finished.

Karlo had often fallen victim to one of Giordan's ramblings about how much he loved the girl he had known for three days at most, or how his heart had been broken again. They were all heated rants, full of emotion, and they boiled quickly and then they were gone.

This, however... this was new.

Giordan made a muffled choking sound and for a moment Karlo thought he inhaled a fistful of feathers from the pillow, but then Giordan's shoulders started shaking.

Oh, how much Karlo cursed himself for bothering at all.

"I am always too much," Giordan said when he stopped crying, which must've been minute at most but Karlo felt like it was an hour. But Giordan sounded way too strained for Karlo to just get up at leave.

"I have always been too  _something._ Too talkative, too kind, too cold, too harsh... I wake up too early, and I make too much coffee, I boil eggs too long, I'm too emotional..." Giordan rested his forehead on the pillow as he spoke. "I was too pretty to go to waste, I talked back too much, I fought back too much, now I am too intense, I care about myself too much, I love too much, I fuck too much... I am too tall for this fucking bed, it seems whatever I do, I do it too fucking much; whatever I am, I am too much..." he stumbled over his last words and pressed his face into the pillow beneath him. 

Giordan flinched when Karlo rested a hand on his ankle.

"You care about what others think-"

"Too much?" Giordan snapped and sat up. 

When Karlo didn't answer, Giordan fell back onto the bed.

"You are just as shit at this as Emma," Giordan said and reached up to wipe his eyes.

Karlo looked at the man lying on the bed - he really was too tall for it. Did he have this conversation with Emma, too? He couldn't image her being bad at it, while at the same time he couldn't imagine Emma trying to actually comfort Giordan. Karlo had seen the two comforting each other before, and mostly it was done by beating the shit out of each other, or one of them making a joke about it. 

No wonder Emma wasn't too good at handling Giordan actually opening up.

Now Giordan was staring at the ceiling and he looked about as miserable as a man with no one to properly comfort him would. 

"Oy," Karlo said and Giordan glanced at him. Karlo nodded his head and his expression must've conveyed the thought "sit up" properly, because Giordan did.

"Hm?"

Karlo slid his hand behind Giordan's head, - didn't miss the ridiculously alarmed look on his face - and pulled him in for a hug. He wrapped his other arm around Giordan's shoulder and patted his back.

"I thought you were going in for a kiss," Giordan said into his shoulder.

"Why would I do that?" Karlo asked.

"I don't know," Giordan said and hugged back. "Comfort?"

Karlo wrinkled his nose at the thought. He would prefer not to do that, and he was fairly certain that Giordan would, too.

"There is enough space for you," Karlo said when Giordan began to pull away.

"Hugs must end-"

"Not what I meant," Karlo said and let go of Giordan. "You're being one intense fuck usually but we have enough space for you, Giordan," he said. Then he cupped Giordan's face for good measure - his eyes widened again in the most entertaining fashion.

"Are you gonna-"

Karlo wasn't sure if it was the touch or his words that made Giordan tense up and try to make a verbal run for it using nothing but his humour. 

"You're not too much."

Giordan blinked at him, and when Karlo dropped his hands, Giordan practically fell forward and rested his head on Karlo's shoulder.

"Okay then," Giordan said. 

Karlo cared about few things, and the fact that his work shirt was getting cried on was one of them - but so was Giordan, so he let it slide. This once.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look at me channeling my emotions into writing.
> 
>    
> Don't think this would have gone better with Emma, her solution is usually wrestling and/or egg-based foods.


	11. does the giordan have read a poetry? who knoweth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> please welcome edge mcedge edgelordson, son of edgear the great, master of staring into the abyss, current emo, future punk, and forever a tiny human to the stage
> 
> also welcome back our grande gingerbread latte

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yoo remember that chapter where monts got all emotional about losing her ppl well i dont really but here is a continuation of that like some -let's say 2- weeks later?

"Hey kid, what's got you so interested?" Giordan asked, stopping beside the short boy - _he was so short_. Surely, he was only 14 - or was it 15? - and for someone as tall as Giordan, most people felt short. Still, the kid was very, very short.

The kid was also silent and frowny and stared outside of the window beside the top of the stairs like he wanted to burn the whole city down.

"Mind helping an old man down some stairs?" Giordan attempted to communicate again.  
As much as he wished he was just cracking a joke, stairs and crutches didn't work out all that well.

The boy frowned even more and didn't respond. What was his name again? Something with _sh._  
He never knew Saeta as well as Emma had, and even when they talked, she hardly mentioned her son. Giordan figured it was her way to protect the kid.

"Look. I'm not trying to be an ass. It's just hard to move-" he stopped talking when the kid looked at him.

Giordan never thought he was cheery kid back in the days; Montero sometimes told him about how much hate he used to stare at people with from time to time. Especially when he claimed to be the only source of happiness in this godsforsakes pub. Of course, he never got to see his own eyes when he did that, but Giordan was sure that they were nothing compared to the hate in this kid's eyes.

"I- uh."

Giordan was there when the explosion happened.

No, not really there, but nearby. He was at the edge of a small building. He lost his balance as he tried to rush to the explosion and fell off. Broke his leg. Nothing he hasn't had before.

But the kid's mom, Saeta, she got caught pretty hard. She was alive, but her legs were gone. Giordan remembered Montero running around and personally arranging for the best quality proesthetics she could find.  
He also remembered her informing the woman that the price would be added to what she owed her.

Giordan was yet to ask her why, but he already knew in what way she was expecting paymeny from her.

The kid was this "way", although for now the reason he was staying with them was that Saeta was as well. Giordan was in the dark as to why Montero would want this kid, but perhaps she just missed having a child with a glare around.

"Hey uh, why the killer look?"

"Are you always so shit at your jobs?" the kid asked. 

Giordan blinked down at him - what was his name, damn?

"What do you-"

"You should have known it would be a trap," he said and turned back towards the window.

Giordan wanted to say something in defense but, frankly, the kid was right. They should have known. They should not have walked into it like they did. They knew that the contact was fishy, and yet...

He managed to sit down at the top of the stairs, after struggling a bit and grunting accordingly.

"You're right," he said. "We know that."

"You evidently fucking don't."

Giordan blinked at the kid.

"Watch your lang-"

"What is it to you? I didn't think language would be one of the top priorities here."

For a kid speaking with an accent thicker than Giordan's cast, he certainly spoke with confidence - and hate. Giordan remembered learning Yberian - how much he hated learning it, and how little he spoke it until Emma came around and he was bullied into talking a language she could understand as well.  
Giordan sighed.

"You're gonna just hate me no matter what I say, huh?"

"It's not as if you have said much to make me like you"

Giordan considered that. The kid had said it with a bite to his voice but also an invitation to try - a challenge, even.

"Do you read?" Giordan knew the answer as he asked. When the kid wasn't staring into space, he had a book in his hands.

"Yes."

"Do you like poetry?"

The kid thought about it for a moment.

"I haven't read a lot of it."

"Wanna?"

The kid shrugged, leaving Giordan without an answer. He waited for a while, but the kid just turned back to stare outside of the window.

"If you want to, I got a few poetry books," Giordan said eventually. "You can borrow any."

No response.

 

A couple days later, Giordan saw the kid - Shian, according to Emma - buried in a book at one of the tables at the pub.

At about 4 in the morning. 

It escaped him why the kid wasn't sleeping, or why he wasn't with his mother, but he figured it is not really his business.

"Whatcha reading?" Giordan asked, sitting down across from the boy.

At first he thought the kid had taken one of his poetry books, but there was no writing on the cover and he didn't recognize the leather.  
Shian didn't look up, he just leaned closer to the book and continued reading.

Giordan leaned over slightly, taking a look at the pages. They were full of letters he didn't recognize, nor could he tell where one ended and another began.

"What language is that?" he asked.

"Zagwean."

Giordan sat back down, and Shian continued looking at the book. He wasn't reading it, Giordan noticed, just staring at a fix point. He was about to voice his observation when the kid turned the page with a sudden motion, and continued staring at spots.

"Is it a good book?"

Shian nodded.

"Why aren't you sleeping?"

Shian shrugged and turned the page. There was no way he read it already. 

He looked at the kid, and decided he was not gonna play parent with him. He got up, walked over to the bar, and set to making coffee. It wasn't too worrysome to manouver anymore; Karlo had placed all bottles from under the counter on a shelf without a word when Giordan started hopping and walking around with crutches. It still wasn't easy but it could have been worse.

"Care for a cup shot of bean water?"

Shian actually turned to look at him. "Bean water?" he questioned curiously.

"Coffee," he said, expecting the kid to look disappointed. Instead, Shian just raised his eyebrows until they disappeared under his fringe. Then he nodded and turned back to his book of Zagwean secrets that he wasn't reading.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> he sulk but he also succ  
> .  
> i am sorry. hes a child. he succ as in suckle at the good bean juice.  
> 


	12. let him say the fuck word guys come on

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shian is 16 and people don't want him to be swearing so much - also, here is some fun ironic times where he steps on a landmine and silently contemplates how he ended up like this and if it is his family's fate to blow up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for reference the timeline is out of the fucking window none of these are in proper order, this happens like years after the previous chapter.  
> idk when the next one will be happening. maybe when they are all fucking dying at the sweet old age of 35? i dunno. 
> 
> also yes it's time for these people i guess montero is old news now?? idk

“Don’t come near me or I swear I’ll kill you.”

Emma and Giordan stopped dead in their tracks.

"What-"

"It's a fucking landmine, is what." Shian said it like it was just another annoying inconvenience.

"We could try some-"

"Fuck off," he said as he slowly eased himself down onto one knee, keeping as much of his weight as he could on his other leg. "There could be more scattered around. So just stay right where you fucking are."

Emma sighed. She crossed her arms and looked at Shian disapprovingly. "Seriously, where did you pick up the swearing?"

Shian groaned. "I am standing on a damned fucking mine that could blow me into a fuckillion tiny shit pieces-"

"Tone it down-" Giordan tried.

"Fuck you."

"We didn't put it there why are you angry at us?" Emma yelled.

"I'm not!" Shian snapped. "This is a stressful situation for a fuckton of reasons so just-" he made some sort of hand gesture and then groaned again in frustration. "I'm way too fucking young for this shit," he added, quieter.

He investigated the mine he was standing on, picking the leaves off it and throwing the bunch agressively in a meaningless direction when he couldn't figure it out.

"Let us help?" Emma asked after a while.

"Are you bomb defusers all of a sudden?"

"No."

"At least it didn't explode the moment you stepped on it." Giordan pointed out helpfully.

"Yeah, thank the fucking stars it's one of those older mines that let you piss yourself first."

"Did you?"

"What?"

"Piss yourself."

Shian stared at him with a perplexed look, one of his eyebrows raised, as if trying to decide whether Giordan was seriously asking that. He took a breath and opened his mouth to answer with something witty, no doubt, but ended up just sighing and shaking his head.

"Alright. Any ideas?"

"I thought you didn't want our help."

"Do you or do you not have any fucking ideas?"

"Maybe you could just step off it?"

"What?!"

"It hasn't blown up yet, maybe it's not the out of fashion de-pressure kind, just one that doesn't work?"

"Why don't you come over here, step on it, wait until I'm far far away and then you can test if it will fucking blow or not."

Emma looked disappointed again - which was not the look Shian had expected - and turned to Giordan in an elaborate fashion.

"I thought he actually got in a long sentence without swearing."

"Yeah, he swears a lot for a 16 years old."

"I swear just the right amount and why the fuck are we discussing this right now?"

"We will help if you stop swearing."

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Look, we just want what's best for you."

Shian gave a whine and rubbed eyes like a middle-aged man tired of all the bullshit he has to endure every day at the corner store just so he can get enough money to feed his demanding family of seventeen - because of course his spouse brought over their half of the family and now they barely fit in the flat on the third floor and there are so many kids now but the others can't find work elsewhere and no one really helps out so it's the corner shop to keep them all alive and he loves them and it's not a burned but he is so so tired and if one more person complains about the quality of the plum soda he will burn down their entire flat on the third floor and stab himself in the guts with a bottle of the godsforsaken plum soda.

"Just get something to put on it," he said. He sucked in his cheeks and bit them to keep in the "for fuck's sake" he wanted to follow that up with. "We are in a" _fucking_   "warehouse, they must have some" _godsdamned_ "crate or something in here."

"They don't even have a roof," Giordan pointed out. "What they do and don't have is really questionable-"

"Just  _go_ and find  _something._ "

"Do you need one of us to keep you company?"

" _Go._ "

"Okay, okay-"

"And look out, I can see four mines just from here."

Emma and Giordan - with Shian's mainly curse-less guidance when needed - managed to get to the other side of the hangar where a couple doors opened without anyone blowing up. Shian stayed put. He didn't have many other choices. Only one, actually, and since that choice was "almost certain death," he did not choose it.

As two doors closed with a creak, Shian was left alone in the hangar. He stood up. There was no point kneeling, it wasn't like he could figure out how to defuse the mine if he just looked at it long enough. It was getting uncomfortable, although that was a minor inconvenience compared to the initial fear. He stared down at the mostly uncovered explosive and sighed. He wondered if it was a landmine that blew his mother's legs off, too, or if that was a different kind of bomb. Maybe someone just threw it. She couldn't have stepped on one, it would have taken off more than her legs if she had. 

There was something really ironic about the situation and he did not appreciate it at all. Perhaps Emma was right, though. Perhaps it wouldn't blow up if he just lifted his leg and walked away. Most landmines and similar devices activated when someone stepped  _on_ them, not when someone stepped  _off._ Perhaps he could just walk away from this one, actually consider watching where he steps, even if that meant taking advice from Montero, and just be done with this. 

But frankly, he didn't have a death wish and he had no desire to test his luck. If his earlier fall through a floor in the other building was anything to go by, fortuna was having none of his bullshit that day.

Maybe he should test it again. He didn't exactly hear any telling click, or anything at all. The mine might not even be active anymore.

Before he could choose "almost certain death", Emma and Giordan returned with a... statue of what looked like... tomato? A tomato vine, with several of the round fruits hanging from it, all carved out of stone, probably, and painted the appropriate colours.

"Where did you find that?"

"It looked like an office," Giordan answered, shrugging.

They put the statue down. It wasn't a particularly large thing, maybe a meter tall, or so, but the base was solid rock, making it heavy enough. Hopefully.

"Just a thought before we exchange this work of art for your life," Emma started. "Maybe it didn't activate because you are too light."

"What do you-"

"You are a short and skinny person, I am pretty sure I have carried potato sacks heavier than you," she said.

"Most of these would blow up a dog."

"I have  _definitely_ seen dogs heavier than you."

"Why don't you test that theory on one of the landmines at the opposite end of this fucking hangar?" Shian asked, gesturing at the far end they just came from.

Emma looked at Giordan, who looked back at her, then at Shian, and nodded. 

"That's actually not that bad of an idea." Giordan said. 

He turned and started walking towards the end of the hangar. Emma sighed and leant against the wall.

"Giordan?" Shian shouted after him. "Giordan! Giordan  _stop-_ fucking first star what the FUCK ARE YOU DOING?"

"Testing," Giordan called back and disappeared through the same door he came out of.

"Is he serious?"

"It really isn't that bad of a plan," Emma shrugged. 

"It's a horrible _"plan_ _""_ " Shian said, with airquotes for emphasis. "It's hardly a plan at all."

"If it blows right away then you are probably just too light."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then it's either dead or blows when the pressure is removed. I am starting to doubt it more and more. Why would it only blow when the pressure is removed? That gives people an adventage. You noticed you stepped on it, and you are still alive. If someone wanted people dead with these, they would have gotten the type that blows up  _when_ someone steps on it, not afterwards."

"Maybe they were just stupid. Or wanted people scared before they died."

Emma shrugged. "I could really go for a smoke. Don't think I brought a lighter- Shian could you hop off that mine real quick?"

Shian gasped like it was the most offensive thing he ever heard.

Emma grinned at him with that grin of hers, the one that hid a way more sadistic person than anyone would expect from someone who looked like Emma.

"I'm just pulling your leg, kid."

"Right. Pull it while there is a leg to pull," Shian said. "What's taking him so long?"

Emma glanced towards the doors. "Dunno."

Eventually Giordan showed up in a crumbling archway that connected the two buildings one floor up.

"I FOUND AN EGGPLANT" he shouted at them, gesturing at the statue he was leaning on. His voice echoed through the empty hangar. "GONNA THROW IT DOWN ON THAT ONE," he added and made another hand gesture towards something - a landmine located near him, probably. It was hard to see him properly.

"COULD YOU NOT?" Shian shouted back.

"ALREADY DRAGGED IT HERE SO NO," he replied and got ready to push it down. "I MUST!"

"You know you can't stop him now," Emma said to Shian.

"IT'S GOING TO SLAM INTO THAT, IT WILL FUCKING BLOW UP NO MATTER WHAT-" 

It did.

Loudly, and activating another to the left, pushing leaves into the air, and making them all hear nothing but buzzing. Shian got knocked off the mine and rolled back. He got to his feet and dashed in the direction of the nearest hangar door. His landmine didn't blow up. Emma was already turning out of the door and running down the road. Giordan was nowhere to be seen. Another landmine went off, then another.

Emma stopped and turned when she reached the tall tree in front of the other building. She bent onto her knees and wheezed, although it started sounding more like plain laughter when Shian stopped beside her, cursing loudly and at everything.

"Told you you could just step off," Emma said when she was done laughing.

"I don't fucking care what the shit you fucking said-"

"Easy, easy," Emma waved him off and patted his shoulder. "You good?"

"Just peachy."

"Good then," she said.

Nothing else seemed to be blowing up, and Giordan came out of the building after an almost worrying while, exiting through a window, and climbing-falling down to the ground with minor cursing. His face was smoked, and a few locks of his mess of red hair were shriveled up and burnt from the heat. He tried to fix the issue by pulling his hair into his forehead, and managed, more or less. His curls looked as messed up as any other day. He had a cleaner section of his face, where he must have raised his arm to protect his eyes and eyebrows from the heat and smoke. He was perfectly fine beside his hair loss and dirt on his face, grinning as he jogged over to them.

"That was an amazing idea, Shian," he announced when he came into earshot. "It was a real blast."

He grinned down at Shian like he expected anything other than a pained look. 

"My ears do hurt like a bitch, though," Giordan said under his breath and patted both of his ears, checking for blood. His fingers came away moist with sweat but clean of blood.

"Great teamwork, too," Emma said. "We even got what we came for before we blew half the place up." She patted her coat where she had put the documents and the small box that they were told not to open under any circumstances.

There were human teeth in the box, a variety of colours; some a classic pale yellow, others more intense yellows and browns, and some dyed more unusual colours such as blue, purple, and red, as well as a couple painted with patterns. Shian told them it was a tradition in some countries near Zagwea, and even in some very southern regions of his tiny home country, but it never really spread to the rest of Zagwea. It couldn't compete with their tradition of skin embroidery, not that it was a race of recycling the human body in the most creative ways or anything, but it sort of was, maybe. Giordan noted he seemed enthusiastic about something for once, which made Shian stop talking completely until he managed to step on one of the many landmines scattered around the hangar floor.

He also remained silent for the most part as they made their way back, and stood in silence as Emma and Giordan handled the client and got the money. The client paid them fairly and left in a hurry.

Shian tucked his share into a pocket on the inside of his thin coat and nodded the other two a night.

"Take care!" Giordan said after him as Shian climbed up to the roofs and tip-toed home on the flower beams and roofs, as he did most nights.

Emma sighed and pushed herself away from the wall she had been leaning on.

"How long you gonna play big brother with him?"

"I'm not."

Emma huffed. "Are too."

"I'm just being friendly."

"You only like him because he hates the world as much as you do," Emma said and shook her head. 

Giordan gasped and held a mock-offended hand to his chest. "I do  _not_  hate the world _._ I _love_ life and living, the world is _such_ a beautiful place!"

"And you are brightest light it has ever seen."

They exited the alley like normal people do and headed down towards the Two Legged Spider. It was the name of the pub they worked at when no other jobs needed their expertise, and the pub that would change its name in less than a week's time. 

"I try my best to shine on everyone," Giordan said and smiled widely to show just how much he brightens people's lives every single day. The smile looked more like a wolf baring its teeth.

"Oh, _"_ _shine"_ is what we're calling it now?" Emma asked, snorting.

Giordan rolled his eyes, and held back his laugh.

"You are too negative, Em."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i was looking at prompts on tumblr dot com and i found this cool one that says “Don’t come near me or I swear I’ll kill you.” and i thought of this scene idk. it's also like 4am.  
> found here: http://mymiscfandomimagines.tumblr.com/post/154996877352/drabble-list
> 
> also im ready to punch shian in the face oh god why is he such a fucking insufferable teenager i'm gonna fucking scream


End file.
